Everywhere You Look, There's an Edit!

If you are or ever were a fan of Full House, chances are you're probably aware of a two-part episode called "Happy Birthday, Babies" which concludes with the birth of Jesse and Rebecca's twin boys, Nicky and Alex. 

What you might not be aware of are some scenes in the episode that are absent from all reruns and physical/streaming releases. Thanks to MeredithVintage, I can show them to you here the only possible way to have ever seen them -- by watching the original broadcast, where it was originally aired as an hour-long episode. Unfortunately, the tape she got these scenes from was water damaged and the audio suffered as a result... but at the same time, these scenes have been out of the public eye for nearly three decades. I think something's better than nothing.

The first scene is an opening teaser where Stephanie and D.J. are wrapping Michelle's birthday present. She walks in without knocking and tries to guess what her present is. Eventually her sisters allow her a quick peek at it, and Michelle asks them to finish wrapping it so she can "be surprised."

The second cut scene is an additional flashback to a scene from "A Pinch for a Pinch" where Michelle uses the cute face routine to convince Jesse to go to preschool with her. Not as major of an edit, but it's still cut from all future showings of the episode... so it counts! Since the flashback is easily viewable within the originating episode, I won't show it here.

The third and final edit is a pivotal moment at the end of what would eventually become part one. Michelle spends half of the episode down about her birthday until her family convinces her that turning five years old isn't so bad, and everybody walks off to get her birthday party ready. Time for the credits, right?

Not quite! In the original broadcast, the scene continues for over half a minute. Becky gets another contraction as she's leaving Michelle's bedroom and alerts Jesse, who dismisses it as indigestion caused by Joey's Cocoa Puff omelets--an exchange which is referenced later in the episode. Although Becky laughs it off with Jesse, she pauses again once she's alone and wonders if the twins may be early.

Though relatively minor on its own, the scene's placement in the episode serves both to foreshadow later events and to provide a bridge between the two story halves. Without this exchange, Becky going into labor is sudden and abrupt... which I guess isn't too unlike the way it goes in real life, but from a story writing standpoint, ya need something there. I kinda wonder why they didn't just cut out another flashback or two in reruns instead, but I guess Michelle needed to be convinced to turn five years old that much more than the audience needed to keep up with the narrative.

At the end of the day, it all ties in to the greater importance of preserving old TV broadcasts. Though edits like these aren't always super common, it's not a good idea to just assume your old VHS recordings are worthless because they're "on DVD" now... For all you know, you might have footage on there that nobody's seen--or documented--in a very long time.